Blue Bird: Hatchling
by ShadowsGrace
Summary: It was a costume, for a party, when she made it she never dreamed it would turn into this.
1. A costume

**Blue Bird: Hatchling**

(A.N. Batman is not mine, only Blue-Jay is!)

She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, with this costume, she was _guaranteed _to get the prize for most realistic.

She was wearing grey tights and a grey undershirt, over which she had donned a blue leotard with a stylized light blue 'B' on the left breast. Her black leather boots went up to her knees, and her hands were covered by black gloves that went up to her elbows. The mask that hid her identity was also black, as was the black headband that held back her long, platinum blond hair.

Smirking, she clicked the yellow utility belt she had made around her waist. Batman and his pals had left enough batarangs and grapple guns around for her to have accumulated a rather large collection, some of which she had brought with her to add effect. Being the inventor that she was, she had also made some smoke bombs and a gasmask that actually worked. The look was finished off by a black cape, lined with blue.

Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she left the empty bathroom.

Instantly, she knew something was wrong. She sounds of the party were gone, instead, there was frightened whispers and crying.

Sneaking through the shadows on the edge of the hall, she knelt by the banister and looked down into the main room. Her eyes went wide, because standing on the dais at the head of the room, accompanied by several armed cronies, was Bane.

The first thing the thought about doing was going out the window and going for help, but that plan was destroyed almost as soon as it was formed, because just as she began to move for one of the windows, one of the thugs looked up, and spotted her.

"Boss!" he yelled, pointing. She mentally cursed and back flipped to avoid several bullets. She twirled and ducked and dodged, first bullets, then the two men that came barreling towards her from either side. Flipping into the air, she got a hand onto both their heads, and added a little more force as they collided with one another.

Flipping onto the railing, she through several batarangs, three knocked the guns out of the men's hands, and the forth lodged itself into the light switch, causing the lights above to short-circuit and throwing the room into shadow as the emergency lights came on.

Jumping down and landing silently on the ground floor, she darted up behind one thug and squeezed the pressure point where his shoulder and neck met, causing him to slump to the floor with out a sound.

Suddenly, her cape was sized. Bane hoisted her into the air and held her at arms length while she swung at him. "My, my, you have courage for one so small." "I sure do!" she snapped, changing her voice a little as she spoke. And then she made her move. Swinging up over Banes' arm so that she was standing on it, she unfastened her cape and lunged at the tubes coming out of the back of Banes' head. She seized them with both hands and, bracing her feet against his back, yanked with all her might. It worked.

Venom sprayed everywhere as she jumped out of the way of his massive fists as he shrunk. Finally he reached a size where she was able to flip into the air, land on his shoulders and smash all her weight down on the pressure point she had used to knock out one of his thugs before. Bane crumpled to the floor with a crash as she flipped away, snatching her cape mid-flip and swinging it back onto her shoulders as she stood up straight.

Looking around, she saw that all of the hostages had escaped and that she was alone in the building, but not for long. The police burst in a second later, the commissioner at the front, yelling "FREEZE!" But then they saw her and Bane. "Whoa." Bullok said, wide-eyed, looking from her to the massive man out-cold on the stone floor.

She took this opportunity to fire off a grapple and escaped through a skylight. Leaping from roof to roof and swinging from building to building, she ran around the city for an hour to lose any followers she might have picked up, before going home.

Landing on her balcony, she slipped inside and peeled off her costume, stuffing it into the back of her closet before going to bed, exhausted. 'Good thing, mom and dad are out of town.' She thought before closing her eyes as she fell asleep, not knowing that she would be taking her costume out again very soon, and things were going to get complicated.


	2. Bird Fight

R.J. woke and sat up, yawning widely. As she rubbed the sleep from her bright blue eyes she wondered if the night before had happened, or if it was just some bizarre dream. She got her answer as soon as she flicked on the T.V.

The battle between her and Bane was on every news station. They were, ironically enough, calling her 'Blue-Jay', but it did make sense, she supposed, seeing as her costume was blue rather than red and had a B instead of an R.

Well, this was just _great! _She couldn't just go and reveal herself, she might end up being killed, but 'Blue-Jay' couldn't just vanish right after making her debut either. So it looked like she was going to be stuck in the hero business for a while.

Sighing, R.J. got out of bed and went into her bathroom. After taking a shower she brushed out her long platinum hair before putting it up into a ponytail.

She dressed in a T-shirt and jeans before pulling out her costume and taking it into the secret cavern she had discovered deep below her parent's mansion. The only entrance inside the house was, conveniently, located in R.J.'s bedroom. You had to press exactly the right spot on the back wall of her walk-in closet, which was lined with mahogany, and the back panel would slide up, the wall along with it, revealing an old fashioned cage elevator. She would take it down far below the house, into a huge series of caves with waterfalls and rivers and pools through out them. The only other ways to get out were from there, and she had blacked them off with high-tech security and camouflage. She had discovered the caverns when she was five, and had never told a soul about them. They were her secret and no one else's.

R.J. yawned, exhausted, still watching the news on one channel that seemed to be devoted to the Bat family, which they now included her in. she had been in the caves all day, she was still there, working on her suit and making her 'roost' more fit for her soon to be secret her lifestyle. R.J.'s father, Germaine Falcon, was the soul owner of Falcon Inc. one of the most powerful tech conglomerates in the world, he and R.J.'s mother, Carmine Falcon, were at home just about as often as the rain fell up.

To keep his daughter happy, Germaine would give her anything she wanted. Having graduated from collage at the age of ten, R.J. had devoted her time to martial arts, gymnastics, archery and inventing. She was shy and almost completely solitary. The only reason she had gone to the party was because no one would recognize her, and right now, she was still having trouble believing that she had taken out Bane all on her own. Even the people who had seen the entire thing had said that if they hadn't seen it, they would never have believed it, and who could blame them.

A girl who was fifteen years old at the most, about five feet tall and, from the look of her, weighing less than a hundred pounds, took out all those men and then Bane, all on her own with out even scratching herself, that was a little hard to believe. But others were arguing that it only made sense that she could fight so well that she could pull it off. She was so small and lean; Batman wouldn't have let her leave his sight until he was sure she could do anything. That argument also had its strengths. The debate, in short, was going no where, but it was fun to watch and listen to.

After forty-eight hours of alternating between working on her suit and modernizing her headquarters, she was done, for now. The had set up an entire, top of the line computer system, a lab, a work out station, a small med-bay, gotten one of her pumped up motorcycles down there, stocked up on gadgets, and had armored her suit. She had also set up curtains around the hot-spring areas, hiding the separate small waterfalls and the several steaming pools into which they fell from each other, just in case she ever had any _guests._

After all this was done, she went upstairs, ate and slept for twelve hours straight before going back down to add the finishing touches.

It took her another twelve hours to set up a few jail cells and a few extra beds, just in case. Truth be told, she would still be setting up the computer system if it hadn't been for the exo-suit she had made, allowing her to lift great amounts of weight without trouble. She had also built something similar into her costume, but it wasn't as powerful and would only be used if it was needed.

After another round of sleep, R.J. was ready for another run on the crime of Gotham City.

Blue-Jay jumped from rooftop to rooftop, quickly and quietly, doing a patrol. She had started in a part of the city far from her home, to avoid suspicion. Things were quiet, but it was only early evening, so the night was still young.

This was proved right when she came across a gang about to jump a group of girls. They had cornered the three against the wall of a building and were advancing quickly, sick grins on their faces. The grins vanished, however, when Blue-Jay came out of nowhere and took out their leader with one hit. They charged her.

They were pathetic; really, she had them all down and out within three minuets.

After making sure the three were alright and got to a place where they could call their parents for a ride, Blue-Jay left to continue her patrol.

The city was huge, but it was only a matter of time before Blue-Jay ran into at least _one _of the bat family. Ironically enough, the first to come into contact with her was Robin.


	3. Blue over Red

She had been scouring the park, when she saw a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. She rolled her eyes. Robin had been following her for several blocks now; she had spotted him a mile away but had pretended not to have noticed him, wanting to face him on her turf.

Getting into the wooded area, Blue-Jay got up into the high branches of the trees and waited. Sure enough, when she 'vanished' he came out to examine the place where she had been standing. He knelt down to take a closer look at the dirt path, and that was when she jumped.

She landed right behind him. He whipped around just in time to see her deliver the spinning kick to the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. He was dazed, but recovered quickly. They exchanged blows, each landing a fair amount until she got tired and knocked him out with one blow.

Blue-Jay smirked, getting an idea. She dragged him into the trees, to a thicket that she knew about, and handcuffed him to a tree, before activating one of his tracers and placing it smack in the center of his forehead.

She also hid one of her own tracers in his utility-belt. She was about to leave, when another idea struck her and she grinned. On a whim she had added black lipstick to her assemble. Now, she applied another layer of the stuff and pecked him on the cheek, leaving a black mark. After this was done, then she left. Returning home as the sun began to rise.

R.J. woke when the sun blazed into her bedroom. She groaned and turned away from the light as Pierre, R.J.'s Butler/chauffer/general caretaker pulled open the drapes. "More sleep." She moaned, he ignored her.

"You're late night adventures have amounted to the topic of choice for the month; I believe it's safe to say." He said, causing her to sit up and take the paper he was holding out to her.

R.J. was not in the least surprised that Pierre knew that she was Blue-Jay; he had a tendency to notice these things when it came to her, seeing as he knew her better than anyone save herself. She had the feeling he even knew about her 'Roost'.

On the front page of the newspaper was a picture of Blue-Jay, taken as she had been leaving the park, it showed her swinging from one building to another. The story beneath the headline **The Blue Bird Returns **was all about her and the rest of the Gotham vigilantes, when they had appeared, their efficacy, etc. R.J. smirked when she saw that her efficacy rating was on par with Nightwings', above Batgirls and Robins. Man, that must have made them steam!

"Master R.J.," Pierre said, "If those are to be the first of many injuries to come you should find an excuse for them." He was looking at the bruises on her arms from her fight with Robin. "Like what?" "Horse riding perhaps, Polo, rock-climbing, are a couple examples." "I already like playing Polo so I'll start that again." "Very good."

"Also, Master R.J., don't you think it would be a good idea to have something similar to the Batmobile, and the Batwing?" "Pierre, I can't drive." "I'll teach you." She smiled at him "Than all I have to do is give two of my biggest secret projects a new paint job and I'll be set." Pierre opened his mouth to ask, then seemed to change his mind, deciding that he didn't want to know.


	4. Drawings

**Chapter Four: Drawings**

"Master R.J. how on earth were you able to keep these secret from everyone?" Pierre asked, amazed at the sight of the two vehicles before him. "I kept them down here." The girl said simply. She was at the computer, following Robins trail to the point where he, or at least her tracer, had stopped. It was below Wayne Manor, of all places. Why would it be there? Unless…

R.J. pulled up a photo of Bruce Wayne, one of Dick Grayson, and a third of Tim Drake. Then she compared them to photos of Batman, Nightwing and Robin in turn. Each had the same body type, and it would explain how Batman could afford all those gadgets and his vehicles.

So, Bruce Wayne was Batman, Dick Grayson was Nightwing, and Tim Drake was Robin. That just left Batgirl. R.J. thought hard, and then it came to her, Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson's ex-girlfriend, the commissioners' daughter. She pulled up a picture of Barbara Gordon and one of Batgirl. BINGO! Perfect match, and the fact that Batgirls' first appearance had been at Commissioner Gordon's pep-rally did nothing but back-up R.J.'s conclusion.

Now that she had established the identities of the bat family, R.J. turned her attention back to her currant project, locating a tunnel that might lead her to the Batcave.

She had already scoped out quite a few and had, at last, sited one that was promising. She followed the underground river upstream for several hours, using grapples to get over some of the more tricky parts, until she reached her goal.

She was sure it was the Batcave, and it looked quite a bit like the Roost. Forcing back the urge to creep out and investigate, Blue-Jay headed back to her own hideout.

She spent an entire day after that retracing her rout, installing zip-lines as she went. She installed two zip-lines for each gorge that had to be crossed, allowing them to be used by people going either way. She also worked up quite a sweat making some of the tighter squeezes big enough to admit someone as big as Batman, but with the help of the exo-suit she managed it.

"Master R.J.," Pierre said when she returned to the Roost, tired and dirty, but satisfied. "I suggest that you wash and rest, your parents will be home for the weekend before going off to Singapore, and they will be taking you to the Wayne tech. Ball this Saturday evening." R.J. groaned but nodded and went up to her room.

"Why do I have to come!" R.J. asked her father "Barely anyone even knows about me!" "Because I said so, now stop complaining!" her father snapped. Germaine Falcon was tall and slender, with pale skin, grey eyes and a mop of black hair. Carmine was tall and slender too, but her hair was pale blond and her eyes were bright blue, though not near the flame brightness of her daughters' blue orbs.

R.J. resisted the urge to scream as her father pulled her from the car and she was forced to follow her parents up the red carpet, between the two walls of paparazzi, and into the building.

R.J. did her best to ignore the flashes of the cameras and the loud yells of the reporters, all clamoring to know who she was.

The guests that had been invited to the party were all high on the food chain, mainly the heads of the world's most powerful companies, their offspring and other famous figures. Though there were a few reporters scattered here and there. Clark Kent had come from Metropolis, for instance, who was, at the moment, one of at least three reporters asking her parents questions, about her. They were soon joined by Bruce Wayne, having come over to greet them.

"Germaine, Carmine, how wonderful that you could make it, you are normally out of the country." "Yes, we just got back from Beijing last night and we are leaving for Singapore first thing in the morning. But we were delighted to have been able to come to such an event. By the way, Mr. Wayne," he pulled R.J. over to stand in front of him "I would like you to meet my daughter Robyn Jayvanya Falcon." R.J. flinched slightly at the sound of her full name, she hated being called that!

"I wasn't aware you had a child." "Yes, well, Robyn is shy, she needs to be protected from the harshness of the outside world, the effects on a child as delicate as she can be devastating, you know." Having heard enough, R.J. slipped away from her parents and headed over to a secluded spot in a corner.

She sat there for a while, sketching on the paper she had brought with to keep herself occupied.

She was so absorbed in her work, that she didn't notice that she had company until he peeked over her shoulder to get a better look at what she was drawing. "Man, you're good!" It was Tim Drake. "Thanks." She said quietly looking at her drawing of a falcon in flight. "I'm Tim Drake." He said, extending his hand, which she shook "Call me R.J." It was kind of weird, here she was, the Blue-Jay, shaking hands with Robin, and he had absolutely no idea who she was.

Turning to a clean page she started another drawing as Tim looked through her other sketchbook. "There sure are a lot of birds in here." He commented after a few minuets of flipping through the pages "Yep, I really like birds. Don't you?" her question caught him off guard and he looked unsure of how to answer as she turned her intense blue gaze on him. "Yes, I guess I do." She smirked a tiny bit and went back to her drawing. After a while, Tim got up and left, presumably to get something to eat, leaving her alone.

As she finished her drawing, a shadow fell over her and she looked up to see Bruce Wayne, of all people, standing in front of the table. He slid in beside her and looked at her newest drawing. His eyes widened and he seemed speechless, but R.J. was unsure of the reason, weather it was because of it being good art, or what the subjects of the drawing were.

It was Gotham at night, the huge full moon throwing the buildings into shadow, but on top of the structure that was the main focus of the piece, stood Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Robin. They were all in various positions and places, Nightwing balancing on a flagpole, Batgirl crouching on a turned-off search-light, Batman standing, perfectly balanced, on the edge of the roof, his cape billowing in the wind like great bat wings, and Robin standing at his hip.

Then she saw him look closer as he noticed a fifth figure in the illustration, this one out of immediate notice but in plain view once you had realized it was there. Blue-Jay was crouched in the shadows at the edge of the page, away from the other four, detached from them, watching them as they watched their city, not knowing she was there.

"Well, I can see what Tim meant by you being a spectacular artist." Bruce said and R.J. looked down, blushing. He seemed to get the gist and stood, "Have a nice evening." He said, and left her alone.

As he walked away, Bruce had a thoughtful expression on his face, one that lasted for quite a while, for he had thought he had seen something else in that drawing, something that he wasn't sure she had put there intentionally. The faint out-line of another figure, this one standing at Batman's other side. It was so faint that he wasn't totally sure that he had seen it, but instinct told him that he had, and it was also telling him that it was the out-line of a small girl, with long hair and a cape.


	5. What's so special about Singapore?

**Chapter Five: What's so special about Singapore?**

R.J. peeled off her dress and threw it onto her bed. Anger flowed through her, how _dare _he! How _dare _he tell them all that she was fragile and weak! He didn't even know her!

After a few moments of angry thoughts and storming around her room, R.J. cooled down and made herself think properly. Yes it was embarrassing and insulting to be displayed as a weak, fragile doll that had to be kept in a glass case so she wouldn't break, but it also would work to her advantage.

With the world believing that she was small and weak, not many would ever suspect that she was Blue-Jay, Robyn Falcon was just a façade that hid the bird from the eyes of society.

Once that thought was set in her mind, R.J. got into her P.J.s and lay down in bed, switching on the T.V. and staring blankly at the screen. She would still be able to play Polo, one of the few things she enjoyed doing outside, but that was the only place where she could be a little more of herself, because, surprisingly enough, quite a few of the rich girls around the city played the game, Cathy Ducane for example, she had even seen Barbara Gordon on the field on occasion, it being a hobby of hers.

R.J. flopped back onto the pillows. Her parents would be going to Singapore in the morning, before the sun even came up. What was so special about Singapore anyway? They had been there more than anyplace else during their life of globetrotting, in fact, she quickly did the math in her head, they had spent a total of six of the past fifteen years there, and that was only for the trips R.J. knew about, there were probably more that she had never been told about.

Curiosity getting the better of her, R.J. sat up and pulled out her laptop. She hacked into her fathers' files easily and went through them until she found what she was looking for, the destinations and flight paths that the Eagle, her fathers' private jet, had taken since it had been made, the year before R.J. had been born.

Her eyes widened, according to the logs, her parents had spent not six, but _eight _of the past sixteen years in Singapore, making small, side trips to other countries, such as Japan, China, India, Russia, Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. But there was more.

While the side trips to those countries were not unusual in their own right, what the hell had they been doing in Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, the Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Kaznia? There was no real explanation or reason for them to go to any of those places, let alone spend over two months at a time on average in them. Suddenly R.J. got the nasty feeling that her parents were not the adventurous globetrotters the world thought them to be.

* * *

Blue-Jay sat back in her seat, staring at the screen of the computer.

Once her parents had departed, R.J. had immediately gone down to the Roost to investigate their unorthodox vacation preferences. What she found blew her away.

Germaine and Carmine Falcon were at the helm of one of the biggest gunrunning and drug smuggling rings in the world. It seemed that Germaine ran everything from handguns to surface to air missile launchers to any country that had enough cash to pay, and Carmine was smuggling every drug on the list in and out of the U.S. and Gotham was one of the main ports for both of them.

They had been doing this for years, all under the guise of a tech. company. They were good, really good. Batman had no idea about them and the cops were just as clueless, only busting the decoy rings that the Falcons left for them to keep them off the real trail, not even the people who worked for them knew who their employers were. It was the perfect system; they had been getting away with flooding the world with guns and drugs for over two decades. Well, not anymore.

Blue-Jay wanted to go out right then and expose the whole lot, but she forced herself to think logically. She would eventually need to bring the Bat family in on this, but not now, not right away, this was her fight, and she would see this through, she would expose her parents and then rise above them, taking the Falcon Empire into clear skies, where it belonged.


	6. Starting Point

**Chapter Six: Starting Point**

R.J. knew that getting control over her fathers' enterprise would not be at all easy, but she was by no means unprepared.

Ever since she had been seven, R.J. had had quite a few major secrets of her own, like the fact that many of her inventions were patented under the code name: Zitkalasa. Her products had been, and still were, extremely popular with the military and other such enterprises. All her royalties and other fees had amounted to so much that she was actually one of the richest people in the world in her own right. Not that anyone else knew about that.

Her plan was to break up the smuggling and running rings, expose and ruin her parents, then buy most of the shares of Falcon Inc. at rock-bottom prices, therefore taking it over and making it into something worthwhile. She would do this as Zitkalasa at first, then, when she got older, she would think about coming out into the public eye as the person behind the famous inventor who had 'his' hand in almost every company in the world.

It was ironic when you thought about it, all these powerful people in the world, and one of them was a fifteen-year-old girl that most knew nothing about. But one of the things R.J. prided herself in above all was that she didn't live for the lime-light.

* * *

Blue-Jay crept quietly through the rafters of a warehouse that her mother used for hiding and dispersing some of her drugs under the guise of a storage company.

It was simple, yet ingenious. Each dealer would have a locker under a fake name, and every week they would go to their locker and pick up their part of the shipment. On the same day the next week, they would return, drop off most of the money and any drugs that they hadn't sold (though that was rare) and the cycle would start all over again.

Blue-Jay had decided not to rush into this; she was going to map out as much of her parents businesses as she could before going in, getting their contacts, their shipping schedules, lists of their cargo, and, in short, mapping out their entire enterprises. If she had her way, this was going to be the first world-wide bust in history.

It would be a delicate process, taking many late nights, but she was up to the challenge, and was determined to do her best.

* * *

"Master R.J., there is someone here to see you." Pierre said. R.J. looked up at the man with the dark grey hair, one eye-brow raised "Who would want to see _me?"_ she asked, mystified. "Tim Drake." Up went her other eyebrow. "Has Batman sent his Robin to investigate?" she asked, "I cannot be sure, but it would look rather suspicious, not to mention rude if you did not take a respite from your crusade and attend to his presence and request for your company." "What are you trying to tell me?" "You need a public life, Master R.J." she rolled her eyes "You only have to have a small ring of associates, the other children from wealthy and important families, it would lessen suspicion even more, and-" "Alright, alright, you've made your point." R.J. stood up and stretched.

"Stall him for a little while I clean up and change." "Very good, see you upstairs in ten minuets." In response she stuck out her tongue at his retreating back.

* * *

"Hello, R.J., it's nice to see you again!" Tim said as she came down the large spiral staircase from the upper floors. "Likewise, Tim." She said with a small, rather shy smile "But is there any particular reason you are here?" He shrugged, "Bruce has been driving me crazy and this is the only place I could think of to go where he _wouldn't _look for me, I hope you don't mind?" "Not at all, actually, it might be nice to have some company my own age." She said. "Come on, I'll show you around."

They spent the majority of the day running around the extensive grounds. She showed him the stables and her favorite horses, especially Raven, the jet-black thoroughbred that her father had sent from Brazil for her thirteenth birthday.

"What's that?" Tim asked as they walked along the edge of the grounds, heading back to the house. He was pointing to a large dome structure that took up quite a chunk of grass. "Oh that, that's my bird aviary, come on, I'll show you." He followed her as she began to trot towards the building.

When they entered it, Tim's eyes went wide. Never in his entire life had he seen so many birds in one place, or so many different species.

There were thousands of them in all shapes, sizes and colors, ranging from hummingbirds the size of his thumb, to an Albatross with a wing span so huge it looked like it could carry Tim through the air with no trouble at all.

"Whoa!" he said "When you said that you liked birds you really weren't kidding!" she giggled softly. "Of course not, with a name like mine did you really expect anything less?" "I guess I should have known." They shared a smirk and she started to show him all her birds. Her parents had apparently sent her quite a few over the years and she bread and trained them as a hobby, some for herself, some for private customers.

"Man, you sure have a lot of Robins and Blue-Jays!" he said as they passed the enclosures, each of which housed a sizable flock of each. "Of course, as my name is Robyn, but the Blue-Jays I'm training for a customer." This seemed to catch his attention, "Really, who?" "I don't know, I've never seen him, or her, they placed their orders over the internet and have paid cash for each separate purchase." "They have made more than one?" "Yes, the blue-jays and a raven, like this one." He jumped as the large black bird swooped down to land on her shoulder.

"This is Uno, he was my first bird. I found him, injured, in the grounds when I was five and nursed him back to health, but he can't fly very well, he's blind in one eye, you see." And he did see, the bird's right eye were milky white and sightless, but it made the old bird no less imposing and imperial as he glared around with his one beady black eye, looking Tim over with an intelligent glower.

"Why, would your customer want Blue-Jays and Ravens?" he asked, "No idea. Why do you ask?" her question caught him off guard for a second before he answered "Just curious, it's a rather odd request when you think about it. Most people would want trained parrots or parakeets." "That's true." She acknowledged as they left the aviary.

"Oh, man!" Tim exclaimed when they saw that the sun had almost vanished below the horizon, "I didn't know it was that late, Bruce is going to kill me, I didn't tell him where I was going!" "Well, we had better run then!" "Race you!" "You're on!" and they both sprinted for the house, laughing as they ran.

* * *

Albatross-Largest seabird wingspan (wandering albatross, 419 centimeters)

Wingspan: avrg. 10-12 feet WOW

Measuring almost 3.5 m

3.5 meters is equal to 11.4829396325 feet

Zitkalasa: Native American for 'Red Bird'


	7. Confrontation

**Chapter seven: Confrontation**

"Where were you?" Tim winced at the anger in Bruce's voice, and then got angry himself. "I was out trying to regain my sanity. That is kind of hard to do with you storming all over the place." "You should have told me where you were going!" the man snapped "WHY?" Bruce was taken aback by the boys' outburst. Tim stopped and took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, before opening his eyes again and looking directly into the eyes of his surrogate father, just as R.J. had suggested he do.

"Look, Bruce, I know I should have told you where I was going, but with the mood you have been in for the past few weeks, you would have said no or gotten on my case about it." The man frowned, "Tim, you're overreac-" "No. I. Am. Not." The teen stressed each word. "Ever since Blue-Jay turned up you've been driving all of us up the wall. You've been snapping at Barbara, Dick barely comes around anymore, and you chew my head off every time I make a joke. No one can stand to be around you anymore, not when you're acting like this, even _Alfred's _been avoiding you, or haven't you noticed that you've been patrolling and working in the Batcave alone?"

Bruce was staring at Tim, wide-eyed, neither noticing that they had spectators. Barbara, Dick and Alfred were standing at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the house. They were all watching and listening avidly. But Tim wasn't done yet.

"We all know that you want to find out who Blue-Jay is, and we all respect that, we all respect _you, _but the more you act like this, the more difficult it is to keep that respect. You've been so busy being frustrated and angry with yourself that you don't realize that not only are you hurting your own health, but you're hurting us, the people who love you most, you're hurting Gotham because you can't concentrate on what you should be doing: protecting your city, not running around after a teenage vigilantly who's actually _very _good at what she does, who's actually really _helping _Gotham just like we are, who has the right to the anonymity that you yourself value so much."

Tim stopped for a moment to catch his breath, everyone was staring at him, but his eyes never wavered from his mentor, who was standing, stock-still, his eyes wide and mouth slightly open. "You have every right to be frustrated and angry," Tim continued after a few moments, "But you have _no _right to take it out on anyone but yourself. To do so is to wallow in your own self-pity, that's not like you, Bruce, and it's not like me or any of the people here to respect someone who can't stand on his own two legs." The teen then turned on his heel and walked away, putting on his mask as he did so.

When he reached the bat-cycles, Robin turned to look at Dick, Barbara and Alfred. "I'm going out on patrol, when and if he decides to grow up give me a call, I think I might have some useful info. on Blue-Jay that he could use." And with that he put on his helmet, revved up the bike and burned rubber out of the cave.

* * *

"He's right, you know." Bruce snapped around to look at the three standing at the bottom of the steps. Dick had been the speaker, he was leaning against the wall, looking at his mentor, "You've been a royal pain ever since B.J. came to Gotham to roost. You've been so busy trying to unmask her that you never noticed that the crime rate has actually _dropped _in the past few weeks thanks to her help, and she's been doing it all on her own. If you want my opinion, not that you ever asked for any of ours on the subject, it might be a good idea to keep her around as an ally, I mean," he looked at Barbara "All she's ever done is help the cause."

The redhead nodded "She hasn't been around much for the past week either," Barbara said "With any of us that usually means that we're onto something big. Makes me think she's discovered something that we are currently clueless about." "I wouldn't be surprised." Alfred put in "She's smart, that one." "No kidding." Dick said as he made his way over to the costumes "Trying to find out who she is at this point and with that motive is pointless, Bruce. She's been too smart to leave any clues before, so why should she start leaving any now?"

Barbara joined him in taking out their costumes "Truth be told, maybe you should concentrate on doing what you should be doing: Protecting Gotham." "We're going out on patrol." Nightwing said "Later." And he and Batgirl exited the cave.

Bruce turned to Alfred. The old man was watching the two teens exit, then he turned and began to walk back up to the house, asking himself "I wonder if Master Timothy rehearsed that speech."


	8. To Fear or not to Fear

**Chapter eight: To fear or not to fear**

Blue-Jay swung in for a landing on the roof of one of her mothers more 'exclusive' drug houses. She had several of them in Gotham city, each one being used for only one specific drug or big-time dealer at a time, there was even one with Rupert Thorne's hand in it. But it wasn't his warehouse that she was investigating this time.

This one was an anomaly. It had been in the use of one specific person for almost a year and a half now. The code name that the customer was using was Jaser, meaning 'fearless'. She wasn't sure what type of drugs he was having brought in, but she was sure of one thing, whatever he was up to was something big. And with this crowd, 'bigger' was never better.

The drug house was in the basement of a normal warehouse that was used for a legitimate shipping company, Seabirds Shipping, one of her mothers few valid businesses.

The warehouse had been the old asylum originally, so it had rooms upon rooms crammed full of goods. And there was more basement then there were upper floors, but Seabird's wasn't a huge business so no one thought much of it. She wasn't even sure that anyone knew about the old asylum that was below the small, two-story structure that sat innocently on the surface of a monster drug hot spot.

Blue-Jay slipped in through a skylight and crept through the shadows of boxes and crates until she reached a dumbwaiter shaft that was used to send food down to the inmates in the lowest levels.

It took a bit of tugging but she finally managed to cut the lock and get the rusty door open. She had to open it slowly to minimize the screeching of the rusty hinges but slipped inside the shaft as soon as the door was open enough to admit her small body.

The cables were also rusty and the metal carrier crate as so badly corroded that it was almost nonexistent. But the chains were not so far gone that they could not hold her weight and that was her concern.

Marking her entrance/exit with a small glowing luminous strip placed just above the opening, Blue-Jay turned on her night vision lenses before beginning her decent, quickly and quietly, into the darkness below.

* * *

It seemed like hours, but in reality it was only twenty minuets before Blue-Jay, at last, hit the bottom floor.

Pressing her ear against the small door to make sure that the coast was clear, Blue-Jay then used a small torch to cut the lock the swung the door slowly open in order to avoid screeching, for this door was just as rusty as everything else, if not more so from all the damp and mildew down here.

As she walked quietly down the main hall, keeping to the side in case anyone should come walking through the blackness, Blue-Jay felt her heart ache at the thought of the inmates who had been forced to endue the torture of this place before Arkham was built.

All the cells were underground, so there were no windows to let in sunlight, the only source of illumination being the small oil-lamps in the narrow corridors that branched off the main hall that she was in. The cells were tiny, too small for any human to be placed in comfortably. The beds on some of the cells appeared to have been made of canvas sacks that the inmates had clumsily stitched together, but in most there was only evidence of ancient, rotted straw-stains on the damp, cold stone floor, or nothing at all.

The place that seemed to be for the 'patients' to use the bathroom was actually nothing but a small, shallow pit dug into the floor in the corner of some of the cells, and not all of them even had that.

The cell doors were wood, they were rotting now and many hung from their hinges or lay on the floor, made of oak slabs as thick as her two fists, with only a tiny door for people to look in at the inmates through and a slot at the bottom for food to be pushed in. It was horrifying, and Blue-Jay had to force herself not to cry.

She also had to force herself to hurry onwards when she looked into an open cell and spotted an old skeleton lying in the center of the filthy floor, or most of a skeleton anyway, its head had somehow managed to end up perched on an oil lamp just outside the cell door. She decided not to think about how it might have gotten there, and hurried on her way.

She didn't look into any of the other old cells, not wanting so see any more of the poor people that hadn't even been given a burial.

At last she reached the room where all the activity was going on.

It was enormous, the ceiling two stories up from the floor and the floor space equaling about the size of a large high school cafeteria. But not everything in there was old, the catwalks that went around and across the room were shiny and new, as were the bright lights that hung from the ceiling and lit up what was going on below.

Bathtubs were lined up in rows as were tables where people wearing surgical masks sat, measuring out the mystery powder that her mother had been importing into different containers which were then taken by other workers and mixed with other substances in the bathtubs.

Blue-Jay had installed a micro camera into one of her gloves and proceeded to take pictures of the procedures with one hand and video and audio with the other, into which she had installed a micro video cam.

She was in the midst of doing this when she noticed a man surrounded by a group of armed thugs walking through the workers. He was wearing a green cape and his grey hair was in a weird, horn-like style. He had a short goatee and at his side was a young, dark-haired woman. He looked like he was the one in charge so she followed them as they left the room, going down another dark corridor that looked new as well.

They came out onto an observation deck and Blue-Jay had to climb a service ladder that was stuck in the wall until she was above the lights and the people. Judging her moment perfectly, she aimed and jumped, landing on top of one of the lights, where she could see everything that was going on without interference, but at the same time, no one could see her.

She could clearly hear what the strange man in the cape was saying "This drug triggers the fear and temperamental centers of the brain, causing the victim to become terrified and to react to the fear and panic with violence and aggression or complete and total submission. Now, let's see how it works." He nodded too one of the men standing beside the door and the man bowed slightly before throwing a large switch in the wall.

Doors on the ground floor opened and about three dozen man and women were forced into the enclosure. The men who had pushed them in quickly left and closed the doors behind them. There was a loud whirring sound and a Plexiglas shield slid between the observers and the observed. Once it was closed, the man in the cape said "Release the gas." And one of his men pulled a leaver that came out of the floor beside him.

Never, for her entire life, would Robyn ever go a day without remembering what happened in that chamber that night, and there was never a night where she did not still hear the screams of the people imprisoned in that hell as they became beasts, as they tore each other apart using teeth and nails like carnivores that had never become civilized.

"Excellent." The man in the cape said when it was over, "it is ready at last, start loading the canisters, I want it ready so that we may proceed with the plan to destroy Gotham for good, and then we will begin to return the world to the paradise that it once was."

* * *

Blue-Jay waited until they had gone before heading back the way she had come. She managed to score some of the toxin on the way back through the manufacturing room, and then made fast-tracks back to the dumbwaiter shaft. As she climbed, she felt tears begin to well up in her eyes but she forced them back, she had to get out of there and make an anti-toxin for the gas, then find out how they were going to get the stuff into the air, as it was obvious that the hallucinogen was a compound that had to be breathed to be affective.

But there was one thing for sure, she couldn't do it alone.

* * *


	9. Backup and a date

**Chapter Nine: Back-up and a date**

"Robin, what did you mean when you said you had information on Blue-Jay?" Batman asked when the teen got back from patrol late that night. "Well," the boy said "When I left today I went to R.J. Falcon's house, hoping to get a pretty girls' company as opposed to yours." The man winced inwardly "And she showed me around the grounds, the sables and the like. But what was really cool was her aviary. She has thousands of birds in there that she trains and breeds as a hobby."

"While she was showing me some of the birds she told me that she had gotten an unusual order for trained birds from a customer using the name Aaron, as she will train birds for those willing to pay a rather hefty price for the job, she's an expert at it." "And?" "The order was for a flock of trained Blue-Jays and a trained raven." "Trained Blue-Jays?" Batman asked "Exactly." Robin replied with a nod. Batman nodded in return and got up, giving the boy a small smirk "I think I will pay Miss. Falcon a visit." "Why, she doesn't know who the buyer is?" "But she can notify me when the said buyer has them picked up and I can then follow them." "Oh."

* * *

Though Blue-Jay wanted to get to work on the anti-toxin right away, she knew that she was dead on her feet and would be useless to Gotham this way, so she took the toxin and some of her notes upstairs.

She had shut out the thoughts of what had happened in the old asylum that night in order to concentrate fully on the problems at hand.

She had been sitting in bed working for about an hour and her eyes were getting droopy when she felt a cool breeze dance across her face. "Close the window, will you?" the man in the shadows did so before advancing to her side.

"You train birds?" "Yep, would you like a robin and a raven for you're two boys?" his eyes narrowed, and she shrugged "Just thought I'd ask." "You received an order for trained blue-jays, correct?" "Yes but I don't know from whom, if that's what you came to ask." "Well, when the order is picked up use this to contact me." He handed her a small paging device. "Sure, whatever." She said, putting it on her bedside table before going back to her work.

Batman's eyes narrowed again and he looked at what she was doing, she opened her mouth to protest, but was cut short when the phone rang. Picking up the receiver she said "R.J." she listened, setting the laptop aside "Oh, hello, Tim." Batman looked at her, then turned back to the computer, into which she could see he was sliding a memory card.

R.J. and Tim had become fast friends and she was pleased to hear from him. "Yes, R.J. I don't know if you've heard, but there's another one of Bruce's' parties tomorrow night and I don't want to be there on my own, do you think you could come and keep me company? Please?" she smiled, saying "I would love too." "Excellent, Alfred and I will pick you up at seven, how's that?" "That'll be perfect, it's formal?" "Unfortunately." She laughed "Well, I'll see you tomorrow then." "Thanks R.J., you're a lifesaver." She smiled again as she hung up.

When she looked up, Batman was gone. She looked at her computer and smirked, he'd copied her info on the toxin, now there would be two heads on the antidote and she could also figure out how they were planning to get the crap into the air.

* * *

"Well, at least I won't be bored to death at the party tomorrow." Robin said as he came down into the cave. "What makes you say that?" Nightwing asked from his stance on the mats. "He's asked R.J. Falcon to go with him." Batman said as he entered the cave himself and walked over to the Batcomputer.

Nightwing catcalled as Robin blushed, staring at his mentor. "How could you possibly-" "I was there when you called." "Oh." "She seemed very happy to hear from you." Batman said, turning the chair a little so that he could see his sidekick, "Is there something going on between the two of you that you have neglected to mention?" "What-NO!" Robin sputtered "We're just friends, that's all." "Right, we'll talk about that later. Either way, your _friend _is working with Blue-Jay, even if she's not aware of it." He slipped the memory card from his belt into the computer and pulled up the files. "I got these off of her laptop while the two of you were talking."

As the other three crowded around to look, Batman went through the files. As each one came up on the screen, the air in the cave seemed to get colder and colder. "Dear god." Nightwing whispered "I told you she was onto something big." Batgirl said, the other two teens nodded.

"We need to get into contact with Blue-Jay as soon as possible." Batman said, his hands working furiously on the keyboard as he started breaking down the toxin from where R.J. had left off.

"How?" Robin asked "I'm the only one of us to have come across her, and she _knew _that I was following her." Batman frowned. "Then we'll have to keep an extra sharp look out for her while we're out on patrols, we _must _find where she came across this and what she knows about it. If this gas gets released on Gotham, the results would be catastrophic." They seemed to get the point.

"Wait." They looked at Nightwing "How do we know R.J. Falcon isn't Blue-Jay?" "The Falcons didn't return to the U.S. until weeks _after _Blue-Jay's appearance."

* * *

R.J. let her long hair fall down her back in a ponytail as she put on her red lipstick. It matched her ruby-red dress perfectly. It was a flowing halter gown, not too fancy but called attention to her slender, curvy body.

Smiling at herself, she strapped on her bright red heels and went down to meet the waiting car. R.J. was practiced on heels, just in case she had to wear them, though she wouldn't if she could avoid them.

As she came down into the main hall, she couldn't help but think that Tim looked extremely cute in a tux. As soon as he saw her his mouth fell open. "You look gorgeous." He said and she smiled "Thank you, you don't look to bad yourself." He smiled and blushed a little before offering her his arm, which she took.

* * *

Bruce looked over at Dick when the teen whistled softly "Looks like Tim did better than we thought." Bruce looked where his older ward was looking and his eyes widened slightly.

Robyn Falcon was wearing a bright-red halter-top dress, bright red heels, ruby lipstick and her hair was held in a ponytail by a red band. "I guess she likes her first name more than she does her middle name." Dick said quietly. Bruce nodded.

* * *

The party was, for the most part, uneventful, but neither Tim nor R.J. got board, having each other for company. After a while, they were joined by Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon.

R.J. already knew Barbara; they had met in passing while at the Polo Pitch but had never really spoken. Barbara was a really good polo player, though she didn't have a horse of her own and had to use one of Mr. Wayne's' horses.

"I've seen you play," Barb told her "You're really good!" "Thanks, you're not to shabby yourself. And have you seen Cathy Ducane play?" "Yes, she's also a good player, as is Veronica Vreeland."

As the two girls talked about Polo, the two boys talked about nothing much in particular.

The party went down without a hitch and Tim dropped R.J. off that night with both of them in good spirits.

But, unfortunately, both of them had some major work to do.


	10. Valentine Bears

**Chapter Ten: Valentine Bears**

Blue-Jay had forgone patrolling for the first half of the night in order to finish synthesizing and testing her antidote, making sure that it worked before loading one dose into a syringe gun and slipping a few more into her belt, just in case.

After this was done, then she headed out, but not on patrol, no, she was going to find out how they were going to get the toxin into the air.

* * *

The first few hours yielded nothing, for either party. The bat family couldn't find a trace of Blue-Jay, and Blue-Jay couldn't find someone who knew how the toxin was going to be released, hardly any of those she followed even mentioned the rumor that something huge might be going down soon. One thing was for sure, whoever these people were; they were doing everything in their power to keep even rumors from starting that might jeopardize their plans.

Blue-Jay sighed in frustration as she headed for the dock-yards, hoping to get something from there. She knew that she should probably try and find Batman and clue him and the others in on what was going on, but she didn't want to risk exposing either of her parents just yet, that was her personal bust, and her's alone.

* * *

No matter what time it was, the Gotham dock-yards were never deserted. The activity that went on around this time wasn't always illegal, only about ninety-nine percent of it was. But tonight, what caught Blue-Jay's attention was the group of men unloading a shipment from one of her fathers' gunrunning rigs.

This in itself was not a shock, she had known that there was a shipment being brought in tonight, that was why she had come to the dock-yards, after all. But what she did find odd was that they were breaking the shipment into two parts. One half of the shipment was going to the normal customers', the other half would be going to a newbie customer, someone going under the name 'The Old One'.

Suddenly, the men carrying one of the unknown crates slipped and dropped it. The lid of the crate was jarred loose and the men cursed before going to get something to seal it up again. When no one was looking, Blue-Jay jumped down from her perch and snuck over to the open box and looked inside. It was full of, of all things, teddy-bears. Bright red teddy-bears.

Footsteps told her that the men were coming back and she had no time to run or hide anywhere but the crate, so she slipped inside and buried herself under the plush bears.

The men secured the top again and then picked up the crate once more. "Hey," one man grunted "Did this thing get heavier?" "Na," said his partner "It's just because we set it down and we've been hauling this stuff all night." The other seemed to accept this and they loaded the crate into what seemed to be a truck, along with the rest of The Old One's shipment.

* * *

Once she was secure, Blue-Jay pulled out her flashlight and turned it on. She sized one of the bears and looked it over, she immediately noticed the minuscule nozzles in the bears' glass eyes and realized that the gas would be in the bears and would be released once the furry red creatures had been distributed to the people of Gotham for Valentines Day. She growled; leave it to the corrupt to try to kill thousands on the day of love.

* * *

When the truck finally stopped and the crates were unloaded, Blue-Jay cautiously looked through a crack in the wood of the crate. Using her night-vision lenses, she was able to determine that she was in a warehouse. All the lights in the room were shut off and, from what she could see, no one was there, but that didn't mean that there weren't guards or sentries in locations that she couldn't see. Either way, she was pretty sure that this was just a place used for storage, not where they would be filling the bears with the gas.

As quietly as she could, Blue-Jay pried the lid off her crate and slipped out, replacing the lid as she did so. She tucked the bear that she had been examining in the crate into her belt and looked around. There was no one else in the warehouse, it was just for storage, until The Old One had them picked up, whenever that was. But that was why she had placed a tracer in the bottom of the crate while she had been in it.

Keeping to the shadows, Blue-Jay used stacks of other crates to get up to the windows and slipped one carefully open, squeezing out of it and closing it behind her.

Climbing up to the rooftop, she found that she was in the industrial district, near an abandoned toy factory on the shoreline. Following a hunch, Blue-Jay swung over to a window of the factory and looked in. It was empty.

Slipping cautiously in, Blue-Jay jumped down to the floor and looked around. Jackpot. She found a place on the floor by a pile of boxes containing old toy parts where the dust had been disturbed multiple times from something swinging across it like a door, but there was no door, just the blank wall. Or so it seemed.

Looking even closer, Blue-Jay found what she suspected she'd find, the out-line cracks of a secret panel that would swing outwards.

Realizing that the door was likely to have sensors for unwanted visitors, Blue-Jay went back outside and walked around the building until she got to the water. Taking off her cape, she wrapped the bear in it and hid the bundle in a clump of reeds before slipping into the water and swimming over to a large pipe that, she was guessing, would go right under the secret area of the factory.

As she swam up it, Blue-Jay made sure to make as little noise as possible as she passed each grating. Finally, she came to the one she was hoping to find, and looked into the room where they were, sure enough, filling the bears with the toxin.

"We, have received the last shipment?" She couldn't see the speaker, but she knew, without doubt, that it was the man in the green cape; she would never be able to forget that voice. "Yes, sir." "No problems from Batman or the others?" "No sir." "Hm, I do hope he has not lost his touch. Not that it matters, anyway, he will be destroyed along with the rest of Gotham city in two days time." There was a pause before a woman spoke. Blue-Jay guessed that it was the woman that she had seen him with in the old asylum. "Have there been any sightings of her?" Blue-Jay felt a strange sensation go through her but she pushed it aside to analyze later, because the man was speaking again.

"No, there have been no confirmed sightings of Blue-Jay, though I have no doubt that she is out there." He seemed to turn his attention back to the man and away from the woman "And remember, if she turns up, Blue-Jay is to be captured and brought to me, she is not to be harmed any more than necessary, is that understood, and I want her brought directly to me." "Yes, sir." The man and his companions left.

* * *

Blue-Jay swam back down the pipe, her head buzzing. What did the old man want with her? Why was Blue-Jay so important to him and the woman, and why had she felt that the woman's voice was, somehow, familiar?

Shaking her head as she reached the end of the pipe, Blue-Jay cleared her mind of those thoughts and questions that were not of immediate importance, and concentrated on her surroundings.

Once sure that the coast was clear, she swam out and headed for the spot where she had first gotten into the water.

Half-way there, however, she ran into trouble.

A guard in a boat came by and she had to duck under water to keep from being spotted. She swam over to a small, low dock and came up under it, looking through a crack in the wood to see the two men look around "Are you sure you saw something?" "I thought I did." "It was probably just a fish." "It was too big to be a fish, it was something else." "What, the loch Ness Monster? Come on, it's the end of the shift, your eyes are playing tricks on you, lets go in." the other man sat nervously back down and Blue-Jay gave a sigh of relief as they sped away.


	11. Alone

**Chapter Eleven: Alone**

Blue-Jay hauled herself out of the water and quickly collected her cape and the bear before heading back for the main part of Gotham.

Stopping back at the Roost to change and gather a few things, Blue-Jay wondered how the Bat family would react to all that she'd found. Well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it, right now the main issue was to get everything to them and the police.

* * *

She swung in for a landing on top of police headquarters, and climbed down the side of the building to the commissioners' window. The window was already open so she slipped inside without a sound.

Batman, Nightwing and Batgirl were already there, only Robin was missing. The boy wonder arrived a few moments later, not noticing the girl just inches away from him in the shadows.

"Anything?" Batman asked his sidekick, "Nothing, not one trace of Blue-Jay and I've been looking all night. I'm guessing no one else saw her?" they shook their heads negative. "Where could she be?" Gordon asked "If it was something as big as you suspect, she should have come to you by now, shouldn't she?" Batman shook his head.

"We know next to nothing about Blue-Jay, not who she is, not her motive, not where she came from. None of us could begin to guess where to look for her. We've never been able to keep her in sight long enough to find her patrol routs." When he said this it sounded like he was in pain, but who could blame him? A fifteen year old girl eluding the world's greatest detective had to be aggravating to say the least. Blue-Jay had to fight back a giggle, they were all trying to track her down and here she was in the same room with them and they hadn't seen her yet.

Gordon rubbed his face with both hands, and Batman seemed to be thinking hard. "We could run another sweep, we have time for at least one more before dawn, then we'll be looking in daylight." He said after a moment of silence.

At this point, Blue-Jay noticed that Batgirl was staring at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly open, and shock evident on what features one could see while she was wearing her mask.

"I guess we don't have much of a choice." Nightwing said and Robin groaned, "My feet are killing me and I'm tired." "We, don't know how long we have until they release the gas, Robin," Batman said, sternly "So you'll have to deal-" "How long have you been sitting there?" Batgirl had found her voice and they turned to look at her. She was looking strait at Blue-Jay, who they now noticed was perched on top of one of the filing cabinets, just watching them, her lips twitching in amusement. "About ten minuets give or take thirty seconds or so."

"Why didn't you come out!" Batman demanded, obviously not pleased that she could pull off his trademark trick so easily, and on _him _of all people. "I wanted to see how long it would take for someone to notice me." She smirked and he growled "But onto more important matters, we have two days before they release the gas." "Their doing it on Valentines Day?" Batgirl asked, aghast, Blue-Jay nodded. "And what's worse, they'll be using these." She tossed the bear to Batman, who raised an eyebrow, but then noticed the eyes. "Weaponized teddy bears, what is this world coming to?" Gordon asked no one in particular.

"The drug itself was first imported into Gotham over a year and a half ago and they've been having weekly shipments ever since, the person who's getting it goes by the name Jaser, meaning fearless. They manufactured the gas in the asylum that was used when the city was first built, below a shipping warehouse, that's where they've been doing their _testing _as well." She couldn't hold back a shudder and the others all got a nasty feeling as she continued.

"The bears were brought in with other guns being run into Gotham, but they're being ordered by a newbie customer, calling himself The Old One. I am sure that The Old One and Jaser are the same man. They got the last shipment of bears tonight, that's where I got that one." She nodded to the bear that Batman was still holding. "The bears are being stored in a warehouse in the industrial district, next to an abandoned factory on the coast. The factory is where they are filling the bears with the toxin."

Silence fell and Blue-Jay became all too aware that they were all staring at her. "What?" "How do you know all this?" Batman asked, suspiciously, eyes narrowed. "I've been doing research and poking around." He looked skeptical and she sighed "Fine, you want proof? Here." She dropped her photos and the disk with the video on it onto the commissioners' desk.

After looking over the photos, Batman put the disk into the player and the video of the asylum came up. No one said anything while the tape showed the workers, but then the man in the green cape came onto the seen and Batman and Nightwing shot bolt upright. "Ra's Al Ghul." Batman said darkly and turned to the commissioner "This is genuine alright, there is no other way she could have gotten this." They had reached the part where they were performing the experiment and just moments before the gas was released Blue-Jay covered her ears and closed her eyes.

After a few minuets, someone tugged on her arm and she looked up to see Batgirl, her face pale. Getting the point, Blue-Jay uncovered her ears and sat up straight. Everyone else in the room looked shaken and perhaps a little ill, but then again, who could blame them.

"Where was this?" Batman asked "In the original asylum, like I said, below a shipping warehouse." "There _was _no asylum before Arkham!" "Yes there was, it wasn't included in the city plans or records because it was privately owned when it was first built and still is, though I believe the family that owns it has, for the most part, forgotten that it existed over the past two-hundred years or so, only one person that I know of is aware of it and she was the one who told me about it before I went down there." "Then how did Ra's Al Ghul find it?" "From what I've heard, he was around when they built Gotham, so why wouldn't he know its location and how to get inside?" Batman scowled at her.

"You said that the bears came in with a shipment of guns," Nightwing said "How did you know there would be a shipment coming in tonight, we didn't hear anything about a shipment of anything coming in?" "The same way you find out about this sort of stuff!" Blue-Jay was starting to get annoyed. Couldn't this stuff wait until _after _they had saved Gotham?

"Who owns the old asylum," Batman asked suddenly "Who told you about it?" "Isn't that a little off topic? Let's stick with the main issue, you can try and grill me for my sources later!" Batman glowered at her. "Fine then," she said losing her patients "We have forty-eight hours to stop Gotham from being destroyed. I was hoping that you would set aside you ego for a little while to work with me on this one but I guess I was wrong." She snatched up the photos and went to the window-sill "And seeing as you have no idea where any of this stuff is, it looks like I'll have to pull this one off on my own. Later." And she was off before anyone could stop her.

* * *

Blue-Jay wiped her eyes as she reentered the roost, tears of anger and frustration welling up as hard as she tried to force them back.

Would it have killed him to just let it go and accept that she was just as good as he was at this, as embarrassing as it might be, if would just pay a little more attention to the media, he might realize that the public was praising him just as much as they were her, only she seemed up on him because she had only just turned up a few months ago.

Blue-Jay tried to work on the computer but couldn't, it was like something was blocking her mind and keeping her from thinking clearly. She stood up and walked over to a darker, more hazardous part of the Roost, where the rocks became jagged and slippery from the damp.

Suddenly, Blue-Jay pulled off her mask, leaned against the wall and slid to the stone floor, tears coursing down her face. Pulling her knees up to her chest she buried her face in them and sobbed.

Blue-Jay, R.J., either one, it didn't matter, but both with and without the mask she was still one thing that couldn't be denied, she was just a child.

She was tough and could handle herself, she could take care of herself, something that most people didn't learn how to do until their twenties at the earliest. But she was still a fifteen-year-old girl in the end. Robin was also fifteen but he had an advantage over her, an advantage that she had wanted for her entire life but had never had: he had a family. He had a father that would help him make the better choices, who would guide him when he got lost; he had a brother to look out for him and a sister to tease him. Blue-Jay had none of that. She was alone.

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	12. Captured

**Chapter Twelve: Captured**

Blue-Jay stood, sniffling, and returned to the computer, her head clear now, having gotten some of the emotional turmoil that she suffered from out of the way.

As she tapped the keys, she thought about how Ra's Al Ghul might distribute the bears. Her best bet would be to stop them from giving them out in the first place, and the only place she could do that, was the factory.

With this in mind, Blue-Jay stood and went into the part of the Roost that housed her arsenal of gadgets and tools.

* * *

As they headed back to the Batcave no one spoke. Batman was mentally berating himself. How could he have been so stupid! All she was doing was helping and he got irritable over the fact that she had cracked a case that he hadn't even known existed. And now all of Gotham was in even worse danger because he couldn't swallow his pride. And not only that, but Blue-Jay was now in _serious_ danger too. She was good, really good, he had no choice but to admit to that, but there was no way she would be able to take on Ra's Al Ghul all on her own. But that wasn't about to stop her from trying anyway.

Guilt gnawed at him in the pit of his stomach. He had no idea where or how Ra's Al Ghul would distribute the bears and even though Gordon would have police watching all the shipments of valentines day products, he knew that a smart girl like Blue-Jay would hit the factory before they had the chance to get the bears out of the building. The problem was, he didn't know when she would go in, and he didn't know which factory it would be.

* * *

Blue-Jay looked over her arsenal, grapple guns, gasmask, smoke bombs, miniature grenades, a small blowtorch, birdarangs, bird cuffs, lock picks and more. She picked up the syringe of the anti-toxin and gave herself the shot, inoculating herself so that she would not be affected by the gas if she got hit with it.

After a moment of thought, Blue-Jay went over to a rack of gadgets and plucked what looked like a small remote from one slot. She raised her foot and tugged at part of the heel of her boot. It came away in her hand and she slipped the little device into the spot where the section of rubber use to be.

Once this was done, Blue-Jay put on her belt and slipped on her mask. Blue-Jay knew that there was a good chance that she wouldn't survive tonight, but, what are heroes for?

With that thought, she jumped on her bike, and left the Roost.

* * *

"Anything yet?" Batman asked "Not a thing." Was the reply "Well keep looking, all of you!" "Batman, if Blue-Jay doesn't want to be found, there is no way anyone will find her." "Just keep looking!" he snapped, as he scoured the city around him with his binoculars.

He had to find Blue-Jay before she got hurt, it would be his fault if she did, and he didn't think he could handle the guilt of a dead little girl on his shoulders for the rest of his life, especially knowing that it would be entirely his fault that she had gone to that factory all on her own.

* * *

Blue-Jay arrived at the factory just before midnight and dismounted from her bike. After hiding it in an alleyway near by, she approached the factory and entered it via the pipe that went under the secret room.

The grating was in the shadows and was blocked from the view of the rest of the room by a large piece of machinery.

Using her small torch, she cut the metal that separated her from her destination away and set it carefully down on the concrete ledge beside her so that she could slip up into the room.

It was rather dark, only a few of the workers were still in the room, and they were packing the bears into large wooden crates along the walls.

Sticking to the shadows, Blue-Jay snuck around the crates, towards the door where the workers were gradually filing out. As soon as the last one was out, she followed them as quietly as she could.

This wasn't the door that lead to the main part of the factory, she soon found that it was a different one, the passage behind it leading downwards, under the factory. Despite the risk of the ocean soaking the earth around it, the factory owners had built this part of the building anyway, in the end, their pride was their downfall, as the factory was quarantined because the wet soil was causing it to sink and slide slowly into the ocean.

Coming to the entrance, Blue-Jay peered into the room beyond the dark tunnel she was now standing in. Ra's Al Ghul was standing on a platform at the front of the room, beside him stood the dark-haired young woman from before. "The time has come." The man said "The time to begin the cleansing of the world, and we shall start with Gotham city! We shall return this tortured world to the utopia that it was before man destroyed it!" the other people in the room cheered.

"Tomorrow we shall send these bears all over the city, and at nightfall, I will activate the release mechanisms in each one, causing them to release their toxin all over Gotham. This city's own people shall tear each other apart like animals!" another round of cheering "Now, go, start loading the crates onto the boat." The workers turned and began to file back towards the exit, causing Blue-Jay to make fast-tracks back upstairs.

Blue-Jay had just reached the ground floor and had looked back to see if the workers were in sight of her yet, when she heard a sound behind her. She whipped around, ducking the blow from the man behind her and punching him in the stomach, causing him to double over, making him short enough for her to punch him in the face, knocking him out cold.

As the man fell to the floor, several others charged her and she was forced to dodge them. Kicking and ducking and jumping and punching, Blue-Jay was able to take out almost her entire attacking force. Unfortunately, almost wasn't good enough. Something hard collided with her head from behind and she was knocked to the floor, dazed.

As she struggled to remain conscious, she heard footsteps as the man who had hit her stood over her "Well done, Ubu, bring her here." As the man, Ubu, picked her up, Blue-Jay couldn't hold back the blackness forming at the edges of her mind and passed out.

* * *

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	13. Her Greatest Fear

**Chapter Thirteen: Her Greatest Fear**

After four unsuccessful hours, Batman had finally returned to the batcave, hoping to dig up something from the disk that Blue-Jay had left behind, or find something he'd missed when he'd gone over the data from RJ's computer. But so far, he was having' just as much luck as they had had in finding her while patrolling.

Batman knew that the only reason the other three weren't saying anything about what had happened was because it wouldn't get them anywhere, and Nightwing hadn't exactly been a gentleman either, so he couldn't talk.

"Uh-Oh." They turned to look at Robin, he was looking at his utility belt. "What is it?" Batman asked. In answer, Robin plucked something off the yellow material and walked over to Batman, holding it out. "I think Blue-Jay knows even more than we thought." Batman took it and looked closely at the object, it was a tracer in the shape of a small bird.

Batman sat in silence for several seconds, before turning back to the computer. "We may be able to lock onto the frequency she uses for her trackers, we won't be able to locate her hideout, but if we can get the frequency, we may be able to locate any other active trackers." After a few moments of frantic typing he stood. "The abandoned Jax Toy Factory, the industrial district."

No one hesitated for a moment as they bolted for the car and the cycles.

As they sped towards their destination, Batman could only hope that they were not too late.

* * *

Blue-Jay woke with a groan, her head throbbing as she opened her eyes.

The first thing she became aware of was that she was tied up, and her belt was gone. She couldn't see, because she had been blindfolded and she had also been gagged.

Her restraints were tight and painful, but she wouldn't let them have the satisfaction of knowing that she was in pain, and kept silent.

The rocking motion of the floor below her told her that she was on the boat, probably with the cargo, seeing as she was not only tied up, but secured to the floor with straps and steel netting. She was bound so tightly and so well that she couldn't move at all, in fact, she could barely breathe. Not wanting to get anymore strap-marks than she had to, Blue-Jay lay still, listening. But all she could hear was the lapping of water against the sides of the ship and the creaking of the straps and nets holding down the other cargo.

* * *

"Batman, the signal, it's moving!" Batgirl said as she looked at the device in her hands. "Where is it going?" he asked, taking a sharp turn down a road that would lead them directly to the Jax Toy factory. "It's going out on the water, like on a ship." There was a moment of silence, before Robin said what they were all thinking "Their on the move, she couldn't stop them." Dread filled the car as they all thought the same thing: Was Blue-Jay dead?

Batman shook himself and pressed the button that would call the bat-boat to the shore near the factory. "It's not over till it's over." He growled "And we don't stop looking for Blue-Jay until we find her, dead or alive." "Preferably alive." Nightwing said through the com-link from his motorcycle just behind them.

* * *

Blue-Jay strained her ears when she caught the sound of someone coming down into the cargo-hold, the sound of voices before the door closed told her that the crew was on bored, meaning that they were at sea. She had failed to stop the shipment from going out; she had failed to protect Gotham. Or had she?

If she could get loose before they docked, and somehow find her utility belt, she could jump overboard, she could destroy the ship from the water, and perhaps survive the ordeal herself. And if that was not possible, she only hoped that Pierre was ready to perform the task that she had set him before she had left.

She heard the person leaving, and then silence. Blue-Jay shuddered as she tried to twist into a position that would allow her to get free, but all she really succeeded in doing was make her bruises worse, the straps were just to tight, and moving only made them dig deeper into her skin, threatening to cut through her costume and into her body. Her pain was increased when the butt of a gun smashed into her ribs, knocking the wind out of her. Apparently she wasn't the only person in the cargo hold after all.

Blue-Jay finally lay still again when she felt one of the straps begin to cut through her costume and after she had received several more hits to the stomach and a slap to the face. Not long after that, the door opened again and someone called down to her guard "The boss wants all hands on deck." "What about the kid?" asked a man about four feet to her left "He said to drug her and add a few more straps and then come up."

The men added three more straps, one over her ankles, another across her stomach and the third across her throat, obstructing her already limited breathing. She flinched when a syringe gun was presses up against her neck and she was injected with a sedative, causing her mind to go fuzzy.

She shivered and tried to keep herself focused, but it was getting harder. She had never told anyone, but Blue-Jay didn't need the toxin to make her experience her worst fear right now, because she was facing it. She did not fear death, nor did she fear pain or injury, what she did fear, however, was being so completely and utterly alone.

She had never had much in the way of anybody. Sure she had had Pierre, but all he had really been able to do was make sure that she was healthy. She had Tim now, her very first friend, and Barb and Dick were nice too. While out on the streets she may not have company, she still knew that she had the bat family on her side, for the most part.

When she thought of that, Blue-Jay felt her gut twist, though with what emotion she wasn't sure. Why couldn't he have just listened to her? Why couldn't he just put aside his ego so that they could all work together to save Gotham?

Little did she know, that Batman was asking himself the very same questions as he steered the bat-boat quietly up beside the ship.

* * *

Without a sound, the four masked vigilantes crept up the side of the cruise ship: the Black Queen, and, when the coast was clear, slipped on board.

Upon reaching the shore, Batman had discovered Blue-Jay's belt on the dock area and had brought it with, hoping that he would get the chance to give it back, and with renewed hope that the little blue bird might still be alive.

They split into groups of two: Batman and Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl, and went in separate directions.

Batman and Robin soon found the door that lead down to the cargo hold. There were two men guarding it, but they were easily disposed of and Batman lead the way down into the hold.

* * *

_She was looking, crying, calling, for anyone, for anything as she wandered through the blackness. It was cold and there were monsters and shadows everywhere. The darkness was wrapped around her head, obscuring her vision. Taste, touch, scent, hearing, all were useless here. Nothing was as it should be, there was no one anywhere. She was falling through nothing, through emptiness. She was running alone. Alone.

* * *

_

Through the haze of pain and fear, Blue-Jay heard the door open again and the footsteps of two people coming down the stairs. She lay still as they moved around, checking the crates. But then- "Yep, this is the stuff, see, here's Blue-Jay's tracker, right were the tracer said it would be." "Excellent, Robin, but now that we've found the cargo, we have to find Blue-Jay, I only hope she's still alive."

It was them! Batman and Robin! But they couldn't see her. She gave a muffled cry through the gag and she heard them stop moving. "Did you hear that?" Robin asked, Batman didn't answer. Blue-Jay cried out again and this time she heard one pair of footsteps come towards her.

* * *

They had found the shipment and Blue-Jays' tracer, now they just had to find her. They were about to leave, when a muffled cry bounced off the walls of the hold, telling the two that they were not alone. "Did you hear that?" Robin asked, Batman nodded and they split up.

A second cry echoed around them and seconds later Batman heard Robin cry-out "Blue-Jay!"

Batman rushed over in time to see Robin pull the gag from the girls' mouth. She was tied up and strapped down with the same metal straps and steel netting as the cargo crates around her, one of the metal straps was even across her neck, cutting off most of her air supply.

After Batman had torn away the netting, that one went first and she gasped for air, coughing and choking as he un-fastened the other straps and cut the rope that was knotted tightly around her body.

Once this was done, she tried to stand, only to collapse. He stooped down and caught her before she hit the floor and picked her up. She lay, limp and glassy-eyed in his arms. "What's wrong with her?" Robin asked, alarmed at the normally spunky girls' lack of motion, "I think she's been drugged, she's not fully conscious." Batman replied, heading for the door back up to the main deck.

The little girl lay in his arms like a rag doll, flaccid and empty-eyed, bruises blooming around her neck and where he could see her skin through her torn costume. How could he have let this happen?

* * *

(A.N.: For those who are wondering, the drug they gave Blue-Jay was _not _the toxin, it was just a sedative.)

(Review, please)


	14. Justice, revenge, and obligation

**Chapter Fourteen: Justice, revenge, and obligation**

"You found her!" Batgirl whispered excitedly, "Yes, what have you found out?" "Ra's Al Ghul not on the boat anymore." Nightwing said, "And neither is Talia, from what we heard, they're waiting at the docks in the city to supervise the unloading." "There won't be any unloading." Batman growled, "Blue-Jay rigged all the crates with charges, we have to get everyone off the boat and then blow the whole thing out of the water." "Wow, talk about ahead of the game, she _is _good at this!" Robin said.

At that moment, Blue-Jay groaned and her eyes came into focus a little. "What-where?" "Quiet, you're going to be alright." Batman said softly and she quieted.

"Come on, we have to get everyone off the boat." "I do not think so." They turned sharply to see Ra's Al Ghul and Talia standing on the deck above them, looking down.

"I thought you said they weren't on the boat anymore?" Batman asked Nightwing as men armed with guns surrounded them. "And according to the men we overheard, they were!" the young man hissed at his mentor.

Batman's eyes narrowed as Ra's listened to Talia, who was whispering in his ear. After a moment of thought, the man nodded and said, softly, "Perhaps you are right, daughter."

Ra's turned back to the group of vigilantes and spoke to Batman. "Originally, my plan was to destroy Gotham and leave, taking only Blue-Jay and one other with me as a captive, and a future weapon." Batman tightened his grip around the little girl, still limp in his arms. "But Talia has just pointed out to me that the young Robin would be a good prize as well. While not as powerful as Blue-Jay, she would allow herself to be used if we had some better leverage." Batman pushed Robin behind him as Ra's nodded to his men and they closed in around them.

Batman pressed the small girl into Robins' arms as the boy crouched behind the three older vigilantes. The three then faced the men, ready to fight.

The men were not trained, or only a few of them were, but there were too many of them, and they had guns. Normally that wouldn't prove to be much of a problem, but under these circumstances, they were at a severe disadvantage: they couldn't move freely without risking someone taking advantage of the gap between them.

They were unable to charge their opponents, having to wait for them to make the first move.

Finally, one huge, bulky man hit Batgirl across the head with the butt of his gun, knocking her down. Another man took advantage of Nightwing's moment of distraction to take him out with a punch to the stomach then to the head.

Without back-up, Batman was overwhelmed, and was forced to watch as Blue-Jay and Robin were picked up. Robin was thrashing and fighting as hard as he could, but the men were too strong, and he went limp when one of them injected him with a sedative, causing him to go as motionless as his blue-breasted counterpart.

"They both have great spirit for one's so young and small." Ra's commented as the men carrying them brought the two children up to him and Talia. "You have raised them well." Batman grunted as he was tied up, not saying anything.

His mind was racing. Ra's didn't know that Blue-Jay wasn't his sidekick, and probably didn't know her identity either, as Batman himself did not know who she was under the mask. But why would he want her? And what for?

Batman watched them as Talia took Blue-Jay from the man holding her and cradled the small child in her arms, like he had been doing not long ago. After a moment, Talia turned and walked out of sight, taking Blue-Jay and Robin with her. Batman strained against his bonds as they vanished from sight, but the ropes wouldn't give.

Batman continued to struggle as several men hauled him to his feet and force marched him towards Ra's, who was smirking. Nightwing and Batgirl were dragged along behind Batman as they were forced up the steps and onto the platform with Ra's.

One of the men handed Ra's Batman's belt, along with the belts of the now stirring Batgirl and Nightwing. Batman twisted as hard as he could as they approached Ra's, but the men kept their holds. "Stop struggling, you freak!" one spat, hitting him over the head with a large fist. The blows would have continued, but Ra's held up a hand. "You cannot blame him for struggling." The man said, smirking wickedly "After all, not only does he have to watch his city being destroyed, he will never see his youngest children again either."

Batman stopped struggling for the moment "What do you want with them, Ra's?" he demanded. The man smiled, "Why, they are my key to world domination, of course. Or rather, Blue-Jay is, Robin is merely motivation for the blue bird."

Batman didn't know what Ra's ment, but his gole was too keep him talking and focused on him, not Nightwing, who had managed to get a small blade out of his glove and was scratching at Batman's bonds, as they were pressed up back-to-back.

"How will a little girl help you take over the planet?" Batgirl asked. Ra's smiled again "Because not only is she a genius in her own right, she can also force the young Falcon girl to work for me too. With those two under my command, nothing will stop me!" Batman ground his teeth, anger and disgust flowing through him. "Kidnapping and imprisoning two innocent girls, that's a new low, Ra's." he spat. "You are forgetting," the other man shot back "I am taking _both _red birds, not just one." Suddenly, one of the thugs laughed "Ha, maybe you can make em' breed!"

That was too much. Batman exploded forwards, the frayed ropes snapping as he twisted them as hard and fast as he could. He caught Ra's Al Ghul with an uppercut that sent him over the decks' rail. He crashed to the deck below and the two brutes lunged at Batman, but Nightwing and Batgirl were already free and took them out from behind.

They grabbed their belts as Batman said "Come on, he have to find Robin and Blue-Jay!" "What about RJ Falcon?" Batgirl asked as they ran in the direction that Talia had gone. "If they have her they are most likely to put the three together, if we find Robin and Blue-Jay, we find the Falcon girl."

* * *

They followed the hall that Talia had disappeared into until they reached the door at the far end. It was closed and locked, but the lock proved to be no barrier against the small torch Batman pulled from his belt. The door swung open and they slipped inside.

They didn't see her immediately, but walked along the catwalk for a few seconds before Talia came into sight. She was holding Blue-Jay in her arms and had Robin propped up against her side. She did not seem surprised when they dropped down in front of her. But their attempt at approaching her was thwarted by the group of ninjas that came out of one of the side halls.

As the three vigilantes fought the ninjas, Talia watched at first, holding the two children to her, but as the three Gothamites started to get the upper hand, she sighed and stood. Lying Blue-Jay down gently, she picked up Robin, pulled out a Glock and pressed it against the boys' temple. Everything froze.

The Ninjas held their swords on the three while Talia held the gun to the boys head. None of them noticed that Blue-Jay was stirring.

* * *

She woke in a bit of a haze, but Blue-Jay's head cleared in record time when she heard "Don't move, Beloved, or I shall take the little red bird's life." She opened her eyes and saw the woman, Talia, standing in front of her holding Robin in her arms, but that wasn't what made the girl wonder's blood boil: the woman was holding a gun to the temple of the first friend Blue-Jay had ever had. This would prove to be a very big mistake.

Talia was standing in a position that blocked Blue-Jay almost completely from the view of the others, giving her the advantage of surprise. Moving slowly, Blue-Jay got to her feet and stood up behind Talia. Then, without warning, she moved.

Sizing Talia's wrist, Blue-Jay wrenched her arm upwards, pointing the barrel of the gun away from Robin, and twisting it, hard, forcing the woman to drop the weapon. Blue-Jay caught it, kicked Talia behind the knees, dropping her down and falling to her own knees, using her hostage as a shield from the front, and the couch as a shield from the back. Blue-Jay wrapped her arm around Talia's neck and pointed the gun at her temple.

"If your father loves nature half as much as he says he does," she said, her breathing slightly ragged from the drug that was still making her a little cloudy, "Than you of all people should know," she pressed the barrel of the gun harder against the woman's temple "That Blue-Jays are bullies, especially when you trespass on their territory!"

No one moved for a moment, then Batman sized the ninja that was holding the sword to his neck and threw him across the room, before doing the same to the ones on Nightwing and Batgirl.

Talia had dropped Robin, allowing Batgirl to pick him up and back away from the woman. Blue-Jay squeezed the pressure point on Talia's neck and let her slump to the floor, unconscious.

For a moment, she stared at the gun in her hand, almost in a trance, before Batman gently removed it from her grip and set it aside. She looked up at him, her eyes still glazed and her face flushed. He frowned and pulled off his glove, putting a hand on her brow. His guess was confirmed and he picked her up once more.

He pulled out her belt and handed it to her. "I believe this is yours." He said and she nodded in thanks. She ran her fingers over it until she found a small button and pushed it. Nothing appeared to happen. "What was that for?" Nightwing asked as they walked back up to the catwalk. "It told an associate of mine that we didn't have to fall back on plan 'B'." the small girl said tiredly.

* * *

When they came out onto the deck, they found that the ship was surrounded by police boats and officers were loading the crew onto them. None of them needed to ask weather or not Ra's was there, they all knew that he would have gotten away.

As several officers went past the group, into the rest of the ship, Commissioner Gordon came up to them. "How is she?" he asked quietly, looking at the now sleeping girl in the Dark Knights arms. "A little beat-up, they hit her with a sedative so she's tired, and she's running a bit of a fever, but she should be okay by morning." The older man looked relived and said "She's a tough one. I wonder what her motivation is. It must be pretty strong for her to put herself through something like this." "Justice." Said a sleepy voice and they turned back to the little girl. She was looking at them, her whole being sleepy, "Justice, revenge, and obligation." Then she was asleep again.

(Review, please.)


	15. Redbirds and Roses

**Chapter Fifteen: Redbirds and Roses**

Blue-Jay woke with a yawn. "Ah, you're awake. I was beginning to worry." She recognized the voice but, for a moment, couldn't remember who it belonged to. It was a second or two before it came to her: Alfred Pennyworth. She sat up, wincing slightly at the pain from her bruises, and looked around.

She was surprised to find herself in the batcave, lying on one of the medical tables, on the table beside her, lay Robin, who was still out cold. She felt her face and found that her mask was still there. "Don't worry, Miss. Blue-Jay," Alfred said "No one peeked." Blue-Jay raised an eyebrow as the butler laid her now clean suit on the table. "While I appreciate it, I don't understand." She said.

"Batman said that you found out who we were because we slipped up early on," she turned and saw Batgirl walking towards them from the bat computer. "We have to find out who you are the hard way." Blue-Jay smirked "Don't bet on that happening any time soon." "Don't worry, I won't." Batgirl said with a small smile.

Suddenly, the doors at the far end of the cave opened and the Batmobiel came in. As Batgirl and Alfred looked over, it came to a stop and Batman and Nightwing hopped out. "Just finished seeing the toxin destroyed." Nightwing said, looking at them. Suddenly, he and Batman gave them strange looks "What?" Batgirl asked "Where's Blue-Jay?" They turned to look back at the table and, sure enough, the girl wonder was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Blue-Jay sighed with relief as she slipped into the hot water.

The moment Batgirl and Alfred had looked away, she had grabbed her suit, slipped it on, and headed for the zip-lines. She had reached the Roost in only a few minuets and had immediately made a bee-line for the hot springs.

After a long soak, she went back up to her room to find that it was Valentines Day morning. The entire ordeal had taken up over a full day and night to be dealt with. Well, right now, she was just glad things would be going back to being as normal as they could in Gotham city, which wasn't saying much relatively speaking.

* * *

That afternoon, RJ received a visitor in the form of Tim Drake.

He was blushing as he handed her a bouquet of roses and said "Happy Valentines day." She smiled and kissed him gently on the cheek, making him blush even more hotly.

* * *

That night, Blue-Jay returned to the alley by the Jax Toy factory to retrieve her bike, and found a surprise on the seat.

A single red rose, tied to a note with a black ribbon in a neatly knotted bow.

Picking up the flower, she looked at the card and smiled.

_Blue-Jay,_

_Thank you for your help. _

It wasn't signed, but it did have a small drawing of a bat at the bottom of the card. She smiled again and sniffed the bright red blossom, before getting on her bike, and roaring off down the road.

**THE END

* * *

**

(Please review)

(AN: What do you think? Should I write a sequel?)


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